May / 2004

awards spotlight
John Walker csc
The Documentary Cinematography Award

by Don Angus

When John Walker csc isn’t making a documentary film, his mind is pretty much occupied thinking up the next one. Some ideas, however, like his award-winning Men of the Deeps, take a long time to germinate.

John Walker csc

Men of the Deeps, the story of the renowned Cape Breton coal miners choir by that name, earned Walker the Documentary Cinematography Award at the CSC Awards Gala last month, the latest honour for the acclaimed film and filmmaker. The show, which aired on CTV in December, 2003, opened the Hot Docs Festival in Toronto last year and took an honourable mention in the category of best Canadian documentary, short to mid-length. It also garnered another honourable mention at the Atlantic Film Festival in Halifax.

The 51:30-minute film — and it really is film — was produced by Picture Plant (Terry Greenlaw), John Walker Productions and the National Film Board (Kent Martin). Walker, a strong proponent of film over video for documentaries, was the writer, director and director of photography, as well as a producer.

He told CSC News that he had been thinking about a film on Nova Scotia’s Cape Breton miners ever since he had shot in the uranium mines at Elliot Lake, Ont., 30 years ago. “There were miners from all over the country,” he recalled, “but it was the Cape Breton coal miners there who really struck me. We were underground for six weeks, and the Cape Bretoners kept me up every night with their stories. From that time I always wanted to do something about them.”

Thus, when Kent Martin of the NFB mentioned the possibility of a project on the Men of the Deeps choir, Walker was already aware that the last coal mine in Cape Breton — the Prince colliery in Glace Bay, N.S. — was soon going to close down. “I realized if I didn’t make this film now I would never make it.”

For Walker, it was a natural fit. He is a native of Montreal who is based mainly in Toronto, but he has been a Nova Scotian at heart since his first trip there with his family when he was eight years old. He now has a home in LaHave on the province’s South Shore where he spends two to six months a year. He has a keen eye for Nova Scotia’s rugged beauty, including the craggy, ocean-view hills and lush, green valleys of Cape Breton Island, and an appreciation of its long and vivid history.

You get both in Men of the Deeps. Through the lens of Walker’s Super 16mm Aaton camera, the film contrasts a land of astounding physical distinction with the often grim 300-year-old tale of Cape Breton coal and the people who have lived and died for it. Riding the storyline and the melodious soundtrack is the Men of the Deeps choir, 30 former miners who sing about their work and the many lives lost down in the pits. In their dark blue overalls, hardhats and headlamps, they have performed across Canada, the United States and abroad, including China.

Walker said principal photography for Men of the Deeps was in June, 2002, but underground scenes had to be shot before the Prince mine closed down on Dec. 15, 2001. That was actually before production funding had been secured, but “CTV was a big supporter of the project and they gave me some money to go up to Glace Bay for the shoot in the mine.” It was just a few weeks before Prince closed, and Walker and focus puller Robin Bain were permitted only one full day below the surface. “I really had to be organized.”

The next morning he was allowed to ride “the trip” — the string of open rail cars the miners ride to and from work — “to get some POV shots going down and coming back up. But that was it.”

Walker said he filmed the choir at the Savoy Theatre in Glace Bay, only a few miles from where coal was first mined on Cape Breton Island in the early 18th century. “The Savoy,” he said, “was built at the turn of the 20th century and it’s a big, beautiful theatre. Musicians from all over the world come there to play — it’s sort of sacred ground for music.” In the theatre, he shot with two cameras, the second operated by Russell Gienapp.

He said he filmed many of the outdoor “beauty shots” in this documentary, and others, while doing research — wearing both director and cinematographer hats — in the early phases of production. “I take my camera with me, with some Kodak 50 daylight stock; I take just one magazine, changing bag and my favourite lenses and a tripod, just a minimal kit, and I start shooting scenes for a sense of place.”

Down in the mine, Walker shot with Kodak Vision 500T, and a couple of rolls of 320 ASA. “We were on a tight budget,” he explained. “I had a couple of old rolls of 320 so I had to take those along, too. We had some battery-operated lights, which I had designed for shooting in the uranium mines, that we wanted to take down, but at the last minute they (mine management) wouldn’t allow us to take them.” In many places in the shaft, there were no practical lights, “so we lit a lot with just the miners’ headlamps.”

Men of the Deeps, the story of the Cape Breton coal miners choir by that name, earned John Walker csc the Documentary Cinematography Award at the 2004 CSC Awards. Photo: Dan Callis, courtesy of NFB

With high-speed primes and high-speed film stocks, he said, “you can shoot anything. You can get an image, but the biggest problem is focusing. It’s so dark through the viewfinder you can’t see a thing, so you usually have to get a flashlight or something to get the focus. Depending on how close the light was, generally we were working with no reading on the meter.”

Walker’s camera is a second-hand Aaton he bought in 1986 to replace his Eclair that was stolen. Then he bought a Cooke lens for it from Haskell Wexler asc, and he has had a set of high-speed primes for quite awhile. He never shoots anything but film.

“Film is in my blood,” he said. “I started out with a passion for photography when I was about eight years old, and as a teenager my first summer job was mixing chemicals in a darkroom in Montreal. When I look out at the world I see it the way film sees it; film translates the world the way I see it. Video doesn’t do it for me. I don’t see the world the way a video camera sees the world.

“The other factor for me is that with my Super 16 camera and sharp, precise lenses, I’m producing high-definition imagery, so I can deliver high-definition programs at a much lower cost. Post-production is cheaper and then there are the camera rentals. So my productions do not cost any more than high definition; in fact, they probably cost less.” He added, “If you want to make a blowup to a 35mm print, which often I do, right there you save $50,000 or thereabouts.”

Walker, who has credits on over 60 films, said he generates his own projects because “as a cinematographer you can get tired of sitting and waiting for the phone to ring.” He must be doing something right. His awards include the 1997 Gemini (Donald Brittain) Award; the 1992 Gemini as best documentary director; the 1990 Genie Award for best feature documentary; the 1987 CSC Documentary Award; the 1986 Gemini for best photography, documentary program or series; the 1985 Yorkton Golden Sheaf Award for cinematography; and the 1983 CSC Documentary Award. Now the 2004 CSC Documentary Award joins his collection of honours.

Walker is the quintessential documentary filmmaker, but there is a unique footnote to his career. He was co-director and DOP on the Canadian theatrical feature A Winter Tan, which screened in 1987-88 to raves and controversy and was nominated for Genies as best picture and for direction. That was a long time ago, and it was Walker’s only feature.

However, no door is closed. “One day I may do some drama,” he said. “I probably will.”

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